The BCS National Championship Game or BCS title game is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by Series organizers to determine the NCAA Division I-A national football championship. The game was first played at the conclusion of the 1998 College Football season after the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game joined the members of the former "Bowl Alliance" to form the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Bowl Coalition, featured championship games from 1992 through 1997. Since the formation of the Bowl Championship Series, there have been several controversies regarding the formula used for selecting the participating teams. Most notably, following the 2003 season, the BCS ranking system excluded Associated Press No. 1 University of Southern California from the BCS Championship Game (The Nokia Sugar Bowl). The following season, in 2004, undefeated Auburn University and University of Utah teams were left out of the BCS Championship Game (The FedEx Orange Bowl). See Bowl Championship (main article) for a further discussion of these controversies.
The USA Today Coaches Poll is contractually obligated to name the winner of this game as the National Champion in its final poll of the season. Thus, the winner of the game is awarded the AFCA National Championship Trophy in a postgame ceremony. The winner also is automatically awarded the National Football Foundation's MacArthur Bowl national championship trophy.
The National Championship Game for 2006 was sponsored by Tostitos. It was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 8 2007 and broadcast by FOX television network. The game featured the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the #2 ranked Florida Gators. Florida won by the final score of 41-14. Allstate sponsored the 2008 game between the #2 LSU Tigers and the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes. LSU won 38-24 to become the only team to hold two BCS National Championship titles. Additionally, LSU is the only team with two losses to play in a BCS National Championship game.
